Category Archives: Bronze Age

What color was the Minoans Hair?

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I’m sure the overwhelming response is black. After all, dark hair and eyes are consistent with Mediterranean coloring. What then, does one make of Apollo, whose hair was a golden blond? When I asked my Greek guide several years ago why Apollo was supposed to have blond hair, she replied that his hair fit in with his role as the sun god.

Fast forward a few years and a lot more research. It turns out that, although blond hair was uncommon, it was not that unusual. Some of the ancient pottery depicts warriors with blond hair and Achilles in fact was supposed to be fair. Another famous blond – Helen of Troy. She literally was fair. They were not the only ones.

DNA evidence confirms that although the prevailing hair colors were black and dark brown, blond and red hair were not unknown. Partly that was due to contact with people from the steppes.

My takeaway: people have always traveled from place to place, intermarrying with local populations. We are all mutts.

I hope to see everyone at the Cohoes Public Library this Saturday, 11 – 4.

Age and Athletes.

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The Olympics are associated with Classical Greece, where these games officially began.

But there were contests of athletic skill before that. And women participated. At least we know they did in Sparta. (Some of the writings by men in other areas were shocked by the freedom of Sparta’s women.)

Since the murals and frescoes in Knossos seem to display both male and female athletes, I chose to believe the young women in Minoan Crete also engaged in races and other games of skill.

And with the Summer Olympics are going on now, I’ve reflected on the athletes who are competing.

I’ve gotten more than a few questions on the youth of my protagonist. (Martis is 16.) Here’s my question: do you think a forty-year old has the stamina, the speed, and the fearlessness to run at a charging bull?

Even in the 2024 Olympics, the athletes tend to be young. One of the skateboarders is 11. Another competitor is 12. There are quite a few teenagers competing. DHINIDHI DESINGHU, a swimmer from India, is 14 years old.

Hezly Rivera. American gymnast, is 16. After Kamila Valieva, a Russian figure skater, won at fifteen (and then lost the gold because of a doping scandal) the age for competing in figure skating has been raised to 17.

The ‘old’ athletes in their late twenties are referred to as though they have one foot in the grave and the other on a roller skate. Simone Biles, arguably the best modern female gymnast, is the oldest competitor at 27 since the 1950’s. She’s referred to as a ‘veteran’ and ‘experienced.’So, a 16 year-old athlete is not an outlier at all, even now.

Ancient Beauty Standards

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Every era has its own standards for beauty. In the Middle Ages, the high forehead look was popular. In the artwork, all the women have protuberant abdomens, a definite no-no now. In the United States, a round-shouldered, pale appearance was considered beautiful, a little weird since that look is a symptom of advanced TB. Very white skin was valued in the Elizabethan era, a look achieved by the liberal application of white lead.

The ancient Greeks also had standards. Symmetry of facial features was one. (That is valued now as well, think Denzel Washington.) Pale skin was another admired trait. The theory is that since people who worked outside were tanned, those who had the leisure to stay inside were the wealthy – the elite. Of course, that standard has changed since it is the elite now who have the leisure to tan.)

Physical fitness, especially for men, was particularly valued. Just look at the statuary and the pictures. And, of course, it was the Greeks who began the Olympics.

One of the admired traits I found surprising: the unibrow was apparently considered beautiful. That definitely is not the case now!

The island of Delos

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According to Greek myth, this small, rocky island was the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. (OK, how many knew Artemis is Apollo’s twin?)

Leto, the mother of the twins, was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan. Hera was so jealous that she decreed Leda could not find any solid ground on which to rest or to deliver her babies.

But Delos was a floating island so Leto was able to deliver her children there, under a palm tree. Since Artemis was born first, she helped her mother with Apollo’s birth and thus became a protector of women especally during childbirth. (Artemis must have been very precocious since she was, what?, ten minutes old at the most.)

Delos is home to the iconic Terrace of the Lions, a wide pathway lined on both sides by statues of lions. Originally, there were nine to twelve but now only five remain. This terrace was erected by the people of Naxos and dedicated to Apollo. It faces east, toward the Sacred Lake of Delos.

I imagine it was quite scary walking past these lions, with their mouths open as though roaring.


Creator: Mark Cartwright | Credit: Mark Cartwright / World History Encyclopedia
Copyright: Mark Cartwright – CC BY-NC-SA – 

Delos is covered with excavations, including the Terrace of Lions. But now, with rising seas, Delos is in danger of being swamped.

Horns of Consecration

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What are the Horns of Consecration? I mention them over and over in my mysteries. (In the shadow of the Bull and On the Horns of Death)

The horns, a symbolic representation of the horns of the sacred bull, were everywhere in Minoan Crete. They ranged in size from smaller ones that edged walkways and stairs to larger ones.

A still intact horns of consecration

As I’ve discussed, one of the features of his culture was the bull leaping which, in my opinion, probably bridged sport and religion.

Amazons – Warrior Women

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In Greek legends, the Amazons were formidable women warriors who lived on the edge of the known world. Hercules had to obtain the magic girdle of the Amazonian queen Hippolyte in one of his 12 labours, and Achilles killed another queen, Penthesilea, only to fall in love with her when he saw her face. (Kind of ironic that.)

These horseback-riding, bow-wielding nomads, who fought and hunted just like men, have long been shrouded in myth. (Remember, one of the stories claims these fierce female warriors also cut off one breast so as to be able to shoot a bow more effectively.

Now archaeologists are discovering increasing evidence that they really did exist.

Excavations of graves within a bronze age necropolis in Nakhchivan in Akzbaijan revealed that women had been buried with weapons such as razor-sharp arrowheads, a bronze dagger and a mace, as well as jewellery.

These fearsome women from 4000 years ago were famed for their male-free society and their prowess on the battlefield, particularly with a bow and arrow. (The men were, according to one theory, out fighting themselves. To another, that the men were tending the herds.)

Recent issues of Archaeology Magazine and World Archaeology have discussed the excavations leading up to the conclusion that the women from the Caucasus could have been the legendary Amazons.

In 2019, the remains of four female warriors buried with arrowheads and spears were found in Russia and, in 2017, Armenian archaeologists unearthed the remains of a woman who appeared to have died from battle injuries, as an arrowhead was buried in her leg. In the early 1990s, the remains of a woman buried with a dagger were found near the Kazakhstan border.

Some of the skeletons reveal that the women had used bows and arrows extensively. Historian Bettany Hughes observed that “Their fingers are warped because they’re using arrows so much. Changes on the finger joints wouldn’t just happen from hunting. That is some sustained, big practice. What’s very exciting is that a lot of the bone evidence is also showing clear evidence of sustained time in the saddle. Women’s pelvises are basically opened up because they’re riding horses. [Their] bones are just shaped by their lifestyle.”

This is particularly interesting to me since current theory suggests patriarchy came from the steppes with the adoption of the horse. Maybe the story isn’t as cut and dried as it appears.

A documentary detailing some of these finds will be broadcast on the BBC in April. In it, Hughes visits the mountain village of Khinalig. This is the highest inhabited place in Europe. There has been a settlement there since the Bronze Age, and stories handed down through their generations tell of women who fought like men but covered their faces with scarves.

Women, it appears, enjoyed more varied lives in the ancient past than those brought about by patriarchy in our more recent cultural history.

Women in Minoan Crete

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Since March is Women’s History month, I thought I would discuss the women of Bronze Age Crete. In my series, I chose to write about this advanced society from about 2600 to approximately 1100 B.C.E. where women played pivotal roles in religion, culture and possibly even the governing of the cities. (In my previous series, I had a male protagonist, a traveling weaver, because women had a much inferior role in the United States of the late 1700s. They couldn’t own property or vote and if their husbands died, their sons took on the responsibility for their care. I wrote about the Shakers extensively, however, since in that society, women were equal and shared equal power in governance of the community.)

Frescoes and artifacts unearthed portray women in positions of reverence and power, suggesting a society where gender roles were viewed differently from contemporaneous civilizations.

Religion was female-centric, with goddess worship at its core. The male figures were always pictured as smaller than a central and large female figure. Women – or priestesses – were often depicted with open arms in a gesture of divine power. I imagined them as influential figures, managing religious ceremonies and advising on state affairs.

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Although the myths about Minos and the Minotaur are what we know today, one has to remember they were told by the Classical Greeks, a very patriarchal society. On Crete, real women likely held sway in the Minoan court. Administrative records and luxurious goods designed for female use display their influence, hinting at the wealth and status women enjoyed. I previously blogged about textiles and the elaborate clothing women wore.

Archaeological findings suggest that queens may have ruled alongside kings or even independently. The opulent grave goods of priestess-queens, often buried with symbols of power, reveal the respect and reverence these women commanded. I imagined a male consort who managed administrative details, under the Queen who was also the High Priestess.

The archeology suggests women’s influence extended beyond the spiritual realm into economics and craftsmanship. The intricately designed pottery, seal stones, and frescoes feature women in prominent roles. We know the intricate textiles, woven by the women, were traded all over the Aegean.

Emerging evidence further suggests that women in Minoan society received an education. In my books, I talk about the agoge, an initiation into society. I based it on what we know of the ancient Spartans who also educated their women. They spent a year minimum in a dorm with other women before marriage and children. (Boys, we think, went into a dorm at the age of seven.)

These ancient Minoans were a progressive culture ahead of its time.

Linear A and B

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I am fascinated by words and language. I’m not sure if that is because I’m a big reader or I became a reader and eventually an author because of it.

In any event, when I began researching the Minoans for my latest series, (In the shadow of the Bull and On the Horns of Death),

I quickly ran into the question of these old, probably the oldest, written languages. Unlike the hieroglyphics, which were finally deciphered thanks to the Rosetta Stone, Linear A and B resisted decoding.

Linear A, which was used by the Minoans, still has not been deciphered. And Linear B was not deciphered until the 1950s. An Englishman from Hertfordshire, Michael Ventris, finally succeeded, using a multi-disciplinary approach.

Tablets with this writing have been found in Knossos and Pylos, as well as other places, and was very early on recognized as the earliest form of Greek. Deciphering changed the way we understand the Aegean Bronze Age, especially the complex societal structures and the far flung trade networks. Linear B has been determined to be a very early form of Greek

I suspect when Linear A is deciphered, it will include primarily trade information but we can hope it will open a window into this exotic and still mysterious culture.

Games and gambling

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Gambling is one of humanity’s oldest vices. ‘Knucklebones’, an ancient term for dice (since they were made of bones), was used right up to modern times. We know that the ancient Greeks gambled with knucklebones since Homer mentions it in the Odyssey.

One of the games I’ve read about is Aphrodite’s throw which involved throwing four of these dice at the same time. It is thought that the sides of each die had a different number, like contemporary dice do. The rules have been lost in time although there are plenty of guesses.

Contemporary sources from both Ancient Greece and Rome mention gambling on the throw of a die.

Carved wooden boards for games have also been found. We know the Egyptians had games, some of them involving boards, (Hounds and Jackals) so it would not be surprising to find the Bronze Age Cretans did as well.

I must also mention that knucklebones were used for divination, again right up to modern times. ‘Casting the bones’ meant throwing them and then trying to read the future from their positions.

Ancient medicine

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We know the Ancient Greeks had medicine. Examples of the diseases that afflict us now, such as cancer and TB, and diseases we have managed to conquer such as smallpox, are found in their writings.

What do we know of medicine in Bronze Age Crete? Not very much. We know they used herbal remedies. An examination of Egyptian dynasties contemporary with Crete suggest other possible medical treatments. Papyri and scenes inscribed on walls depict medical instruments. The purpose of some of them, however, are still a mystery. Instruments from later dynasties have been found as well.

Papyri, and clay tablets from Mesopotamia, show that a huge feature in medicine was divine intervention. Prayer and animal sacrifice, which we know were also employed in Bronze Age Crete, were important features. Amulets, to keep demons and bad outcomes at bay, were commonly used. Astral medicine, i.e. using the stars to predict the best time for the best outcomes, was also very important. The zodiacal calendar was used to predict the most propitious times for medical treatments.

I want to add that seers were used to predict the best times for all important activities. The flights of birds was one method. The sacrifice of a sheep and the reading of the organs was another.

Our current medical system certainly has flaws. I am very glad, though, that a surgery appointment does not depend on how a flock of birds fly through the sky!